1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network access terminal for accessing a network, a network system, a method of the network system, a storage medium, and a program code.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, due to the rapid development and spread of computers and networks thereof, various types of information, such as text data, image data, and audio data, now consist of digital data. Digital information does not deteriorate with age, and can completely be stored semi-permanently. However, digital information can easily be copied and, thus, copyright protection becomes a serious concern. Security techniques for copyright protection has rapidly increased in importance.
One of the security techniques for copyright protection is use of a digital watermark. In the digital watermark technique, a name of a copyright holder, a copyright purchaser ID, and the like are embedded in the digital image data, the digital audio data, the digital text data, etc., so that they cannot be known by a third party and unauthorized use, such as illegal copying is prevented.
Further, although the digital watermark technique was originally used for copyright protection, it is frequently used for another purpose. For example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,978, a digital watermark technique uses image data as a hot link for accessing a Web site. According to this digital watermark technique, URL information is embedded in the image data as a digital watermark, and the image data including the URL information is distributed. A user extracts the URL information embedded as the digital watermark from the image data that includes the digital watermark, and accesses the image data based on the extracted URL information via a network. Consequently, the image data can be used as a hot link for accessing the Web site.
As mentioned above, according to the digital watermark technique, image data can be used efficiently as a hot link for accessing a Web server by embedding URL information in the image data. However, according to the conventional watermark technique, image data that includes URL information as a digital watermark functions only as a hot link for accessing a specified Web server. Therefore, it is not possible to access different Web servers, depending on the type of terminals for accessing the Web servers, access positions, and access time.
For example, on a personal computer, content on a Web site can be browsed on a relatively large screen. However, on a cell phone or a PDA, the same content on the Web site cannot be browsed, on the relatively smaller screens. Although on a personal computer, the Web site can be accessed at a relatively high speed, on a cell phone or PDA, the Web site usually is accessed at a relatively low speed. Further, although the personal computer has a relatively large processing capacity, and storage capacity, and content requiring a great deal of processing and having a large capacity can be browsed, the cell phone and the PDA have a relatively small processing capacity and storage capacity, and content requiring a great deal of processing and having a large capacity cannot be browsed. Therefore, in general, the Web server has first content for access from the personal computer and second content for access from the cell phone and the PDA. In many cases, the first content is browsed using the personal computer, and the second content is browsed using the cell phone and the PDA. However, according to conventional practice, a single web server must be accessed both by network access via the generally used personal computer and by network access via the cell phone and the PDA, irrespective of the different contents of that web server.
In many cases, the Web server independently has content described by a first language to facilitate browsing from a first country and content described by a second language to facilitate browsing from a second country, so that a plurality of countries can easily browse the Web site. However, according to conventional practice, a single Web server must be accessed from both the first and second countries, irrespective of the different languages.